I Want to Be in That Number!

Posted On November 1, 2020

“Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.”

Psalm 30:4 ESV

“Lord, I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in!”

Who are the saints? I want to be one . . . I think. Do I have to do something special or be extra holy? Do I have to give away all my possessions? Do I have to be a martyr? In recognition of All Saints Day, I thought we’d look at what it really means to be a saint. Here is the definition in The Student Bible Dictionary:

“SAINTS. Holy ones — set apart (Rom. 1:7; 1 Sam. 2:9). All true Christians are saints in the biblical sense of the word (Eph. 1:12-14; 1 Pet. 2:5,9). Not perfect people but those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior (Phil. 1:1; 4:21).”

So according to the Bible, a saint is someone who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That includes me and that includes you if you are also a Christian. Great! Hurray for us! We are all saints. So now what? The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary expands this definition a bit more:

“Biblically . . . the term ‘saint’ is correctly applied to anyone who believes Jesus Christ is Lord. To believe in Jesus demands obedience and conformity to His will. A saint bears true and faithful witness to Christ in speech and lifestyle. To be a saint is a present reality when a believer seeks to let the Spirit form Christ within (Rom. 8:29; Gal. 4:19; Eph. 4:13).”

When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord, we are also given the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is God’s Spirit living in us, and He gets to work on us right away. As long as we cooperate with Him, God begins transforming us from the inside out. He gets our spirit in step with His Spirit. Soon we begin wanting the same things He wants. We want to obey Him and do His will. We want to tell others about Christ and let the Good News about His salvation show in our speech and actions. Ultimately, the Holy Spirit wants to transform us into the image of Christ Himself. So as saints we will become “extra holy,” but it is not our doing. It is the work of the Holy Spirit living in us.

“It’s dangerous to sum up grand truths in one statement, but I’m going to try. If a sentence or two could capture God’s desire for each of us, it might read like this: God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.“

Max Lucado, Grace for the Moment

In Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis points out that while we may wish to remain “ordinary people,” God has a much different plan for each of us. And submitting to that plan is what we mean by obedience. Have you tried really hard to go for one day without sinning? How about for 1 hour? I mean no sinful deeds, words, or thoughts. I don’t think I would last even five minutes on my own. I have to rely every minute on the Holy Spirit to keep me on track, but even then I mess up sometimes. Does this mean I am a bad person? No, it just means I am a human being. God knows we can’t do this on our own. So obedience does not mean trying really hard to be good; it means letting go of ourselves and submitting to God. Part of the Holy Spirit’s job is to help us fight our sinful nature. But that’s not all He does. He also gives us His supernatural power to accomplish amazing things, things we would never dream of trying to do on our own. All of this comes as part of the process of transformation. He won’t settle for just making us better; He wants us to be perfect.

” . . . no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The job will not be completed in this life: but He means to get us as far as possible before death.”

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

We also shouldn’t be surprised if we face tough times once the Holy Spirit starts working in us. We may have to deal with new temptations or other hardships. Why? C. S. Lewis explains the reason a Christian may have to struggle:

“Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us. . . .”

God wants us to grow. He is not content to leave us the way we are. Every day He wants us to take a step closer to Him so that He can make us into the people He wants us to be. When we don’t let Him do this, we stagnate. This is not only contrary to God’s will, but as Max Lucado points out, it can also be dangerous:

“I like the story of the little boy who fell out of bed. When his Mom asked him what happened, he answered, ‘I don’t know. I guess I stayed too close to where I got in.’ Easy to do the same with our faith. It’s tempting just to stay where we got in and never move. . . . Don’t make the mistake of the little boy. Don’t stay close to where you got in. It’s risky resting on the edge.”

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.'”

Matthew 16:24-25 NIV

Jesus tells us we must lose our lives for Him. What does He mean? Do we all have to become Christian martyrs? I certainly hope not! C. S. Lewis talks about this in Mere Christianity. He explains that Christ wants us to “kill” our old sinful natures:

“Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. . . . Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked — the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.'”

We don’t really find our true selves until we turn over our old selves to Christ. This doesn’t mean we give up who we are to become some sort of Christian robots, all monotonously alike. In fact, the opposite is true. Our old selves are like dim shadow copies of who we are meant to be. The Holy Spirit infuses our individual personalities with His light. Like a stained glass window, we are meant to shine. We will never discover the unique beauty hidden in us until we let Him ignite our souls.

“How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been:
how gloriously different are the saints.”

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

So how do we do this? Once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, how do we give up our old selves and take on our new Christlike selves? How do we become the saints God wants us to be? C. S. Lewis explains how we should begin:

“The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him.”

Transformation is not something we can accomplish on our own. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to submit to Him and give Him opportunities to carry out His plan. John Ortberg wrote a book called The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People which stresses that the first goal of spiritual life is transformation:

“I am called to become the person God had in mind when he originally designed me. . . . His plan is not simply to repair most of our brokenness. He wants to make us new creatures. So the story of the human race is not just one of universal disappointment, but one of inextinguishable hope. . . .”

John Ortberg also points out that the Good News Jesus brought is the existence of another realm — the kingdom of God — and this world is closer than we think. It’s available to all of us and we can live in it now by being transformed. Unfortunately, this seems to be the part of the Good News we as Christians are often missing. We settle for what Ortberg calls “pseudo-transformation.” As he points out, “if we are not marked by greater and greater amounts of love and joy, we will inevitably look for substitute ways of distinguishing ourselves from those who are not Christians.” Doing so can lead us to become exclusive and judgmental. This is not God’s plan and, therefore, is not acceptable. As John Ortberg reminds us:

“Jesus brought a message that spoke to the deepest longings of the human heart to become not simply conformed to a religious subculture but transformed into ‘new creatures.’ Instead of focusing on the boundaries, Jesus focused on the center, the heart of spiritual life. When asked to identify what the law is about, Jesus’ response was simply ‘Love God, love people.'”

When the Holy Spirit is truly working in our lives, we will begin to bear good fruit. We will become more loving, more understanding, and more approachable. We will become more like Christ.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” 

Galatians 5:22-23 NIV

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

So how do we let the Holy Spirit work in our lives? Do we just sit back and hope for the best? Or is there something we should be doing. John Ortberg explains, “Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training wisely.” Learning to recognize and allow the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives takes practice. Just like playing the piano, learning algebra, or running a marathon, we must train to get better at it. As John Ortberg tells us:

“Following Jesus simply means learning from him how to arrange my life around activites that enable me to live in the fruit of the Spirit. The traditional term for such activities is ‘spiritual disciplines.’ . . . we can turn almost any activity into a ‘training exercise’ for spiritual life. A disciplined follower of Jesus — a ‘disciple’ — is not someone who has ‘mastered the disciplines’ and never misses a daily regimen of spiritual exercises. A disciplined follower of Jesus is someone who discerns when laughter, gentleness, silence, healing words, or prophetic indignation is called for, and offers it promptly, effectively, and lovingly.”

I have only just begun reading his book, so I cannot speak from personal experience about all the spiritual disciplines he discusses. He mentions some basic practices such as solitude, servanthood, confession, and meditation on Scripture as helpful activities for allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us. There are others he mentions later in the book. I look forward to learning about new ways to create opportunities for God to work in my life, but the danger here is allowing the disciplines themselves to become more important than a close relationship with God. It’s a balancing act. For me, the most helpful thing to remember no matter what I’m doing is to stay connected to God. We must never forget that spiritual transformation is not something we can do on our own. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. John Ortberg explains it this way:

“Consider the difference between piloting a motorboat or a sailboat. We can run a motorboat all by ourselves. . . . But a sailboat is a different story. We can hoist the sails and steer the rudder, but we are utterly dependent on the wind. The wind does the work. If the wind doesn’t blow — and sometimes it doesn’t — we sit still in the water no matter how frantic we act. Our task is to do whatever enables us to catch the wind. Spiritual transformation is that way. We may be aggressively pursuing it, but we cannot turn it on and off. We can open ourselves to transformation through certain practices, but we cannot engineer it. We can take no credit for it. . . . Spiritual growth requires discernment. We must learn to respond to the fresh wind of the Spirit.”

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 1:6 ESV

As Christians we are God’s saints. We will be there on that morning when the new world is revealed. In the meantime, God is busy transforming us into the people He has always intended for us to be. Our job is to let Him.

“Moses didn’t ask or arrange for the burning bush. But once it was there, he had to make a choice: whether to turn aside and pay attention to the work of God. God’s responsibility is to provide the burning bush. Our responsibility is to turn aside.”

John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted

This week’s Scripture passages focus on what it means to be God’s saints. There is a printer-friendly pdf version below the image. I have also posted a video of New Orleans Traditional Jazz playing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Lord, I want to be in that number!

“But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.”

Daniel 7:18 ESV

References:

• Brand, Chad, et. al., editors. Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Holman Reference, 2003.
• Dockrey, Karen, et al. The Student Bible Dictionary. Barbour, 2000.
• Lewis, C. S. “Mere Christianity.” The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics, Harper San Francisco, 2002, pp. 1-177.
• Lucado, Max. Grace for the Moment: Inspirational Thoughts for Each Day of the Year. J. Countryman, 2000.
• “New Orleans Traditional Jazz – When the Saints Go Marching In!” YouTube, uploaded by notradjazzband, 22 November 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOluh_1_rlw.
• Ortberg, John. The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. Zondervan, 2002.
• “When The Saints Go Marching In – New Orleans Gospel 4tet.” YouTube, uploaded by nogquartet, 21 June 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA9G8jTx12U.

Images:

• Trumpets featured image by fabrixx from Pixabay
• Choir image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
• Stained Glass image by Gail Rubin from Pixabay
• Butterfly image by Rachel Burkum from Pixabay
• Piano image by Ri Butov from Pixabay
• Sailboat image by Marek Studzinski from Pixabay
• Jazz image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay